Blog Wrap Up: Thesising kicks off and classes begin

We’re back and have gotten the semester off to a strong start. Check out what’s going on
in and around CCT.

On Gnovis:

As Margarita embarks on her thesis research, she shares with
gnovis the deeply personal and complicated relationship she has with her
subject matter.

Looking back, it seems that once I was in the system,
regardless of my initial role as an observer, I soon was balancing two
additional, and conflicting roles – that of watchdog and that of agent.

Also while thesising, Brad stumbles upon a perfect book for
his project. (Lucky! (Read in Napoleon Dynamite voice)) "Hacking: Digital Media
and Technological Determinism" is likely to be of interest to anyone interested in
CCT related issues.

All in all, if you have any interest in hacking, open
source, hacktivism, privacy or security, then you really MUST spend an
afternoon with this book. It’s a quick read, but with surprising depth and
novelty, and is argued with fantastic clarity.

It’s to easy to label our generation as unimaginative. Every
generation has it’s strengths and weaknesses. I’m sure when the "Greatest
Generation" was born, the grandparents were muttering "so
unimaginative…"

Frequent commenter Isaac goes on to point out that our
generation has no reason to feel defensive when old-school critics call us
unimaginative.

Around CCT

Lauren’s questions regarding the role of Reasonable action
in the market place lead her to affirm the importance of interdisciplinary
research.

Through real-world investigations of various economic
exchanges a puerile economist like myself can come to understand how actors,
institutions and the state come to constitute and change the things that we
categorize under the economy.

Dr. Garcia forecasts (and hopes) that the Obama
administration will re-instate the Office of Technology Assessment to foster
greater interdisciplinary technology research in congress.

I’m more and more convinced that what decision makers need
today, in this age of complexity and high uncertainty, is a way to think
holistically and creatively about the possibility of future outliers and
unanticipated events

You can invite friends to watch a brief clip, a single
episode of a show, or all the episodes of a certain TV series….Users can chat
in real time as they watch the show, and the friends you invite have no control
over your HAVA box; they’re only able to see what you show them.

Cory Doctorow comes to my rescue with some helpful advice
for ‘Writing in the age of Distraction”

We know that our readers are distracted and sometimes even
overwhelmed by the myriad distractions that lie one click away on the Internet,
but of course writers face the same glorious problem: the delirious world of
information and communication and community that lurks behind your screen, one
alt-tab away from your word-processor.